Program Officer

Title: Program Officer

Duty Station: Mosul

Project background

The project “Supporting Decentralization and Local Development in Iraq” is commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Positive developments can be observed about to the security situation that now allows to recruit national employees in the governorates. Given this wider room of implementation, the project’s design and its implementation plan have been reviewed and adjusted. The project will support decentralization in Iraq by reducing the financial dependence of the governorates on the national budget and by investing its own local resources. This will reduce the financial burden on the national budget, on the long term, can contribute in changing the prevailing administrative culture, which is based on receiving orders and budgets from capital and spread the culture of finding local solution depending on local sources to implement local development plans. The decentralization project will support local development in the governorates by activating the local resources maximization units. It will support selected districts by identifying (income generating) projects that can benefit its citizens and cover part of operational costs. It will increase civil society participation in two districts by including their needs and priorities in development planning and their auditing role as well on the district activities. It intends to develop the Iraqi partners’ technical capacities through trainings to overcome technical obstacles and to suggest improvements of the administrative cycle and the legal environment. It follows a participatory approach during its planning and implementation together with the Iraqi partners. Upon the partners’ requests and suggestions, the previous project design has been modified entirely to ensure both the cooperation with the Iraqi authorities as well as the implementation of the activities alongside the Iraqi expertise in addition to the previous bringing international experiences and example that can be useful for the Iraqi case. It will work at different administrative levels starting from the Higher Commission for Coordination among the Provinces (HCCP) the Ministry of Planning (MoP), and Federal Board of Supreme Audit (FOSP) at the national level, via the governorates and districts ending at the local communities’ level. This multi-level approach not only allows project activities to be linked, but moreover paves the way for an integrated development cycle that starts with citizens’ needs and reflect them in the national development plan. The previous will be the prerequisite for wide spread and advanced steps of decentralization and local development measures in the national development plan that will be implemented by national institutions.

Tasks

The position duties focus at supporting two project’s working teams in the domains of: institutional development; feasibility analysis & income generating projects. The geographic outreach are two governorates: Nineveh, Kirkuk. The tasks will be conducted with the governorate structures and selected districts structures within the mentioned governorates.

1. Organizing meetings, visits, workshops, training

• Facilitating official meetings at the governorates and districts levels and supporting field visits to the selected districts

• Participating on meetings/workshops and assisting in documenting relevant information for the project team

2. Follow up and communication

• Facilitating and following-up the communication with the governorate structures, selected districts structures

• Ensuring and coordinating necessary technical support by relevant directorates and institutions to implement project activities

• Facilitating, supporting and coordinating any other tasks to be performed by project staff and experts

3. Miscellaneous.

• Ensuring conflict-sensitive implementation of activities

• Identifying and providing project-related source of information directly linked to the project’s work streams

• Providing translation and interpretation (Arabic-English and v.v.) when needed during exchanges with local stakeholders

• Coordinating any movements in close coordination with the project team and the respective RMO-responsible colleagues

• Creating and updating contact lists of project-related stakeholders

• Representing the project and liaising with local authorities

• Reporting on the progress of the implementation of activities in the selected districts

• Supporting in procurements if any

4. Document Management System (DMS) The position holder checks and maintain the proper archiving in DMS according to OuR on a regular basis.

5. Other duties/additional tasks The position holder will support the project with any additional tasks of non-technical nature if deemed necessary.

Required qualifications, competencies and experience Qualifications

Professional experience

• Education: University degree in financial administration, finance, business administration.

• Experience: Minimum of 1-3 years of relevant occupational experience. Work for an international company or development organization is an advantage.

• Responsibility: Independent execution of tasks according to existing planning and consultation with supervisor and colleagues.